How Node.js Libraries Can Improve Your Logging
Software development projects usually take a long time and go through several stages. All the requirements gathered at the beginning must be turned into working software features using code written by multiple developers. Due to the complexity of this process, even the most talented teams can’t implement a comprehensive software system without making a single mistake on the first try. Syntax, logical, and runtime errors not recognized early may become costly to fix over time.
Logging is one of those tools that development teams can rely on at every project stage to ensure code quality. Seemingly simple yet powerful, such tools can become highly useful. Today, we’ll consider how you can improve the quality of your Node.js projects with logging and consider some popular logging libraries.
Logging in a Nutshell
What’s logging? By logging, we usually mean the process of recording events that occur in an app. In the context of Node.js, logging typically involves writing messages to a file that the development team can use to diagnose and debug emerging issues.
What are the main approaches to logging? You can perform it in different ways. Console logging involves outputting messages to the console, which helps debug during development. It’s a simple, valuable technique for learning or building small Node.js projects. However, it’s not recommended for production use, as console logging can be slow and unavailable in some production environments.
Who uses logging? It is used by on-site or dedicated Node.js development teams, DevOps engineers, and IT operations teams to diagnose and debug issues that occur in an app. By logging relevant data, these teams can gain valuable insights into how the application behaves and what might be causing problems. Also, it can be used to monitor the performance and availability of a running Node.js application after development is complete. Ensuring it’s running smoothly and delivering value to users is critical.
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What are the main logging challenges? If your Node.js app generates tons of messages, files containing all this data may eventually become pretty big. Large files, in this case, don’t necessarily mean large benefits since they may contain data of zero importance. Regular file rotation helps to avoid large files. However, this can be challenging for a development team to implement correctly, as you must ensure you’re not losing any vital information. Once you’ve generated log files, it’s essential to be able to analyze them to identify issues in your Node.js application. It can be not easy if you’re dealing with large files or don’t have the right tools to analyze them.
To log or not to log? Efficient techniques imply that Node.js development teams know how to separate the wheat from the chaff. In other words, it’s essential to understand what data should or should not go into the files. Any error messages your application generates should be logged, as they can provide valuable insights into what might be causing issues. Uncaught exceptions and unhandled rejections are data that must not be ignored by your Node.js logging and development tools. If your application has user interactions, tracking data about these events can be helpful, such as when a user enters the system, creates an account, or performs other actions. Any sensitive data that could potentially be used to compromise your application or your users should not be logged. It includes passwords, credit card numbers, and other personally identifiable data.
Do you want to know more about the Node.js logging libraries worthy of trying? Continue reading here: https://xbsoftware.com/blog/node-js-logger-libraries/
